The present invention relates to a system and a method for access management and billing and, more particularly, but not exclusively to a system and a method for access management and billing of online content over computer networks.
During the last decade, the Internet has become a widely used source of information, providing enormous amounts of content to end-users all over the world. As the Internet has no central management and users are not listed by any administrative entity, billing and monitoring users for accessing content and receiving services is performed by independent online billing systems and accounting applications. Such independent billing systems are usually operated and managed by the providers of the contents and services. Usually, a content provider that offers a billable content or service uses a billing application or a billing system for managing the access to the billable content and billing the end-users for such an access.
As many of the billing systems are independent and do not have any information about internet users, end-users have to subscribed before they can access the content they are managed. In many known billing methods and systems, end-users pay for a time-limited subscription that allows them to access content for a set period. As different content providers use different billing systems, end-users acquire separate subscriptions that allow them to access content in separate sites or databases. For each subscription, the end-user has to maintain related account information, such as personal identification information, for example a username and a password, subscription expiration date, etc. In addition, the end-user has to provide his or her identification whenever he or she wants to access one of the websites or databases.
Billing systems and methods for billable content and services are now the subject of much activity as well as research. Billing systems for both general and specific purposes abound. For example, common models for billing online content are usually based on the connection time between two terminals at a given transmission rate, the quantity of data exchanged between two terminals, or the data-transmission rate. Usually, such models are implemented on the server or the computer system of the content provider that offers the access to its resources.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,065,571, issued on Jun. 20, 2006, discloses a system, a method and a computer program product for policy-based billing of network sessions. Initially, a plurality of packets is received by a plurality of analyzers. Thereafter, the packets are aggregated. Next, the packets are analyzed to identify a plurality of flows and the session is associated with the flows. At least one application associated with the session is also identified. The session is then reconstructed utilizing the identified application. A user associated with the session is then identified along with a policy. The user is then billed for the session in accordance with the policy.
Another example for such a billing system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,001, issued on Mar. 14, 2006 that describes a method of billing a communication session between a user and a value-added service. A request is received from a user for a communication session, such as a circuit-switched call, a computer-network telephony call or a multimedia session, between the user and a value-added service. Information associated with a credit account is requested before the user is connected to the value-added service. The information associated with the credit account, such as credit card information, debit card information or checking account information, is received in real time. Credit account information, which includes the received information is associated with the credit account and a predetermined amount that is to be charged to the credit account, is communicated to a payment authorization database, which can be located locally or remotely. Alternatively, the credit account information includes the received information associated with the credit account and a predetermined amount that is to be set aside in the credit account for the communication session. Payment authorization information associated with the credit account is received from the remote site before the user is connected to the value-added service. The user is connected to the value-added service when the payment authorization information is affirmative. A total charge for the communication session that is based on an actual time that the user is connected to the value-added service is calculated when the communication session is terminated. Lastly, session charge information, which is associated with the communication session, is transmitted to the remote site when the communication session is terminated, the session charge information including information for charging the credit account an amount representing a charge for the communication session.
The aforementioned methods and systems are designed for a designated service or content service and do not provide a solution to content providers that do not manage a special billing system.